St. Nazaire Raid
On March 27, 1942, the Joubert was the main target of Operation Chariot. The original strategic purpose of the combined Royal Navy and British Commandos raid was to make Joubert – the only port on the Atlantic capable of servicing the German battleships Bismarck (already sunk by 1942) and Tirpitz – inoperative. This gave the port a strong strategic importance to the Axis Powers during the Second World War, and it was decided that if this drydock could be put out of action, then any offensive sortie by the Tirpitz into the Atlantic could be much more dangerous for her, and probably not worth the risk.
After Operation Rheinübung on 18–27 May 1941 – in which the Bismarck and heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen were to have ended their operational raid at Saint-Nazaire, but which resulted in the sinking of HMS Hood and the sinking of the Bismarck – the need for the Allies to take the Joubert out of operation was increased.
A force of 611 British Commandos launched the St. Nazaire Raid against the shipyards of Saint-Nazaire, codenamed "Operation Chariot". The old British destroyer HMS Campbeltown was used as a ram-ship loaded with explosives against the Loire River estuary gate of the Joubert Lock; its later explosion, combined with commando destruction of the lock's pumping facility and machinery, made it inoperative.
Although the Nazi German forces tried to repair the facility, the Joubert Lock remained out of commission for the rest of the war, and it did not function again until 1948; it was not recommissioned until 1950. The first ship to be accommodated after being repaired was the former German ocean liner SS Europa, which on refit became the SS Liberté, which was given to France by the United States of America in compensation for the loss of the SS Normandie in New York.
Read more about this topic: Louis Joubert Lock
Famous quotes containing the word raid:
“John Brown and Giuseppe Garibaldi were contemporaries not solely in the matter of time; their endeavors as liberators link their names where other likeness is absent; and the peaks of their careers were reached almost simultaneously: the Harper’s Ferry Raid occurred in 1859, the raid on Sicily in the following year. Both events, however differing in character, were equally quixotic.”
—John Cournos (1881–1956)